User initiated monitoring of e-commerce websites and email offers

ABSTRACT

A system and method for creating a watchlist of products relating to any type of item/service/event for which any type of purchase may be made by a user. The system permits a user to access a website and identify items of the website that are of interest and other users (or friends) and associate one or more users with one or more items in the watchlist. The system stores the identified items and friends in a watchlist for later retrieval, review, transmission or action by the user. The system may periodically inform the user of any changes to the items of interest or any changes in purchases made by the user&#39;s friends to items in the watchlist. Items may alternatively be added from multiple websites, multiple emails or automatically by the system.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/232,696, filed Dec. 26, 2018, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/675,247 filed Aug. 11, 2017, which issued onJan. 1, 2019 as U.S. Pat. No. 10,169,805, which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/457,073 filed on Apr. 26, 2012,which issued on Aug. 15, 2017 as U.S. Pat. No. 9,734,530, which claimsthe benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/524,898 filed on Aug.18, 2011, which are incorporated by reference as if fully set forth.

BACKGROUND

The internet has brought unprecedented amounts of information to thefingertips of potential consumers across the globe. As the quality ofsearch engine algorithms has continued to improve, it has been easierfor consumers to receive search results that are closer to theirexpectations. Accordingly, access to large volumes of information hasprovided many benefits to consumers who make purchases via the internet,such as providing a more solid foundation upon which consumers may basepurchasing decisions.

There has been no greater effect by the internet on preexistingbusinesses than that on retail sales and their business models.Consumers were once relegated to searching physical stores within thevicinity of their homes. Consumers now have access to retail and virtualstores around the globe, and can compare and contrast products, pricesand information regarding all manner of products and services from thoseretailers. This has given shoppers unparalleled power to shop for thebest price and the specific product for which they are looking.

However, there has been a downside to this proliferation of information.There are now so many retail websites, with so much information on eachwebsite, that the shopping experience has begun lead to informationoverload and shopping fatigue. It becomes difficult for consumers tokeep track of which website(s) on which they have found a particularitem, or which items on a particular website they have been interested.The consumer has become frustrated, and the shopping experience isgreatly diminished as a result.

The designers of retail websites understand this frustration and haveinstituted measures to help consumers in this regard. Most retailwebsites now allow a user to put things in a “shopping cart” for laterpurchase, or even permit consumers to create a list of items in whichthey are interested, a consumer has to establish the shopping cart orlist for each website. This typically includes logging in to eachwebsite and entering personal information. This process is inconvenientand time-consuming for the consumers and becomes yet another source offrustration. Additionally, certain items, such as tickets to events suchas a concert, play or movie may not be currently available when theconsumer happens to be shopping or a consumer may not be ready to buywhile at the website and between the time they decide to make thepurchase and log back on to the website the item of interest may be soldout.

A method and apparatus for providing items such as tickets to varioustypes of events without the limitations of the prior art is greatlyneeded.

SUMMARY

A system and method for creating a watchlist of products relating to anytype of item/service/event for which any type of purchase may be made bya user. The system permits a user to access a website and identify itemsof the website that are of interest and other users (or friends) andassociate one or more users with one or more items in the watchlist. Thesystem stores the identified items and friends in a watchlist for laterretrieval, review, transmission or action by the user. The system mayperiodically inform the user of any changes to the items of interest orany changes in purchases made by the user's friends to items in thewatchlist. Items may alternatively be added from multiple websites,multiple emails or automatically by the system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more detailed understanding may be had from the following description,given by way of example in conjunction with the accompanying drawingswherein:

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a system architecture for creating awatchlist in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a plurality of events for which tickets may be purchased ona retail website;

FIG. 3 shows one of the plurality of events for which tickets may bepurchased on the retail website with a button permitting the user to addthe item to a watchlist;

FIG. 4 shows an item as added to a watchlist;

FIG. 5 shows a plurality of items added to the watchlist of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 shows a watchlist parameter configuration screen;

FIG. 7 shows an updated watchlist of FIG. 4 as transmitted to a usershowing any updates that were made since the last transmission of thewatchlist;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of a method in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 9 shows a second embodiment for adding items to a watchlist from aplurality of websites

FIG. 10 shows an example system that may be used to implement featuresdescribed herein with reference to FIGS. 1-9.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows an example logical architecture 114 for email-basede-commerce. The example architecture 114 includes an e-commerce system100, a payment processing system 136, a vendor interface system 137, avendor order fulfillment system 138, and a product delivery system 139,and may interface with a plurality of user devices 120 a-120 n and aplurality of vendor websites 130 a-130 n.

The e-commerce system 100 may include an account management module 102,a database module 104, an e-commerce database 106, a website module 107,an order execution module 108, a product delivery module 109, a messageprocessing module 110, a web browser module 135 and an email interfacemodule 112.

Although not explicitly shown in FIG. 1 for simplicity, these modulesmay be functionally linked together. As those of skill in the art wouldappreciate, the modules may be embodied as physical units that arephysically linked together via one or more electronic bus structures,may be functional units that are functionally linked together vial oneor more communication protocols, or there may be a combination ofphysical or functional units. They may be programmed via software orfirmware in a plurality of physically separate units, or may beincorporated into a single programmable unit. Accordingly, although thepresent invention may be described herein as distinct and specific unitsor modules, (such as, for example the vendor interface system 137, thepayment processing system 136, the order fulfillment system 138 and theproduct delivery system 139), this is for convenience of explanation,and these modules, systems or units may be variously combined into oneor a plurality of units without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe present invention. Additionally, the various functionality describedherein relating to watchlists may be implemented using any one or moreof the components mentioned as part of the e-commerce system 100 orusing any type of processor or processors, any type of singleprogrammable unit/processor, or any type of module and may be configuredas a component of the e-commerce system 100 or as a component incommunication with the e-commerce system 100.

As will be described in further detail hereinafter, the e-commercesystem 100 and user devices 120 a-120 n may communicate to initiate andmanage transactions such the searching, processing, tracking andpurchase of various items. As will also be described in further detailhereinafter, the e-commerce system 100 may communicate with the paymentprocessing system 136, the vendor interface system 137, the vendor orderfulfillment system 138 and the product delivery system 139 to executethe transactions.

The account management module 102 may manage data related to accountsfor users and vendors that participate in commerce via the e-commercesystem 100. The account management module 102 may be or include, forexample, a web application.

Vendors may interact with the account management module 102 via thevendor interface system 137, which may comprise a web browser or aproprietary closed system. As one example, a vendor may provideinformation via the vendor interface system 137 to the accountmanagement module 102 such as: product and pricing information to beused for email advertisements to be sent to users in email campaigns;periodic and/or aperiodic updates regarding product and pricinginformation to be sent to users as selected by the users; emailformatting information for email advertisements to be sent to users;financial information related to bank accounts and/or other types offinancial accounts (such as e-payment accounts such as PayPal accounts)for receiving payments from users of the e-commerce system 100, such asaccount numbers and/or other identifying information; and/or otherinformation. The vendors may include any type or number of vendorsinvolved in the offering for sale items such as movie tickets, spaservices, theatre events, cruises, sporting events, concerts, airlinetickets, hotel reservations, etc. to name a few purely by way ofexample. The vendors may offer any type of item/service/event for whichany type of advance purchase may be made by a user.

Users may interact with the account management module 102 via the webbrowser module 135. The web browser module 135 provides functionalityfor user access to the e-commerce system 100. Users may register withthe e-commerce system 100 by interacting with the web browser module viatheir web browser. The web browser module 135, in turn, interfaces withthe account management module 102. This permits the account managementmodule 102 and the web browser module 135 to support individualizedfunctionality for each user. It should be noted that the web browsermodule 135 and the vendor interface system may comprise a single module.

As will be described in detail hereinafter, the account managementmodule 102 may track the shopping trends or statistics of the userincluding items browsed, items put on a watch list and/or items thatwere eventually purchased either for the user or as gifts for otherpeople. Where a user is a travel agent professional, for example, theuser may configure the account management module to track shoppingtrends or statistics on a customer-by-customer basis. The trends orstatistics may include length of time that a user spends on in item orcertain category of items, the number of “clicks” on an item or certaincategory of items, (such as reviewing other user reviews, comparingseveral items or the like), the amount of time spent on viewing the itemor type of item, or the number of times a user “returns” to an item ortype of item during one or more shopping experiences. This allows thetracking and statistical determination of the likes and dislikes of eachuser. The account management module 102 may retain certain informationregarding each user that the user directly inputs; for example, inresponse to one, or a series of website product questionnaires orsurveys. All of this user-specific information is collected and stored.

A user of the user client device 120 may provide information to theaccount management module 102 via the web browser module 135 such as: anemail address associated with the user; financial information associatedwith the user, such as a credit card information (such as a credit cardnumber and expiration date), and/or other information related to bankaccounts and/or other types of financial accounts (such as e-paymentaccounts) that may be used to make payments to vendors via thee-commerce system 100; shipping address information; billing addressinformation; preferences regarding which vendors the user would like toreceive email advertisements from; and/or other information.

In a separate embodiment, the financial information of a user, such ascredit card information, may be supplied to the account managementmodule 102 for analysis of user preferences. This permits the accountmanagement module 102 to analyze all of the information for userpreferences and to suggest items in which the user may be interested.These suggestions may be emailed to the user for adding to a watchlistas will be described in detail hereinafter.

The account management module 102 may, via the database module 104,store information received from the user device 120 and/or the vendorwebsite 130 a-130 n in the e-commerce database 106. The accountmanagement module 102 may also add information to the e-commercedatabase 106 when users and vendors register with the e-commerce system100. This information may include as user identifiers, vendoridentifiers, and other identifying information.

The message processing module 110, (in conjunction with the emailinterface module 112), may generate advertisement or product updateemail messages for users that are registered with the e-commerce system100, such as the users of the user devices 120 a-120 n. Theadvertisement or product update email messages may be HyperText MarkupLanguage (HTML) email messages, Rich Text Format (RTF) email messages,and/or may be defined according to any other appropriate format. Theadvertisement or product update email messages may include UniformResource Identifiers (URIs) or hyperlinks that are defined according tothe mailto URI scheme. Each mailto URI or hyperlink may describe anemail message that may be generated by an email client module (such asthe email client module 122) when that URI or hyperlink is selected.

The generated message may include a number of parameters that indicate,for example, an item that was advertised in the advertisement email thatthe user wishes to purchase or reserve for future purchase when the itembecomes available. In the context of movie tickets, for example, thegenerated message may include an advertisement indicating that aparticular movie is coming to theaters in a few weeks and that ticketsare going on sale today. The generated message may alternatively includea number of parameters that indicate, for example, updated informationregarding a product that a user has been tracking for possible futurepurchase. The generated message may then be sent from the e-commercesystem 100 to users from the email interface module 112. By way offurther example, again in the context of movie tickets, the email mayinclude information indicating that the available number of tickets fora movie at a particular location, date, and/or time are becoming low andproviding the option to purchase immediately.

The email interface module 112 may be configured to use one or moreemail accounts that are associated with the e-commerce system 100, andto send and receive messages associated with the one or more emailaccounts. The email interface module 112 and/or the email client module122 in the user client device 120 may communicate email messages usingtechnologies such as Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Post OfficeProtocol (POP) technology, Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP),Remote Procedure Call (RPC) technology, HyperText Transfer Protocol(HTTP), and/or other appropriate technologies. The interface module 112and/or the email client module 122 may use these technologies totransmit and/or receive email messages via one or more email servers(not depicted).

The email client module 122 may be, or include, an email client such asMicrosoft Outlook, Thunderbird, a web browser application, or any otherclient application for the communication of email messages. In aninstance where the email client module 122 is or includes a web browserapplication, the email client module 122 may be the same web browserdescribed above that may be used to communicate with the accountmanagement module 102; alternatively, the email client module 122 andthe web browser described above that may be used to communicate with theaccount management module 102 may be different. As will be described indetail hereinafter, the user, through the email client 122 on the userdevice 120 a, may take one or more actions, such as replying to theemail, selecting one or more reply-to links in the email, adding one ormore items from the email to a watchlist or the like.

The payment processing system 136 handles financial transactionsassociated with the purchase of an item or service, or a donation. Thepayment processing system 136 may be, as one example, a payment gatewayoperated by a financial institution. In an instance where the paymentprocessing system 136 is a payment gateway, the payment processingsystem 136 may have a connection to one or more banking networks (notdepicted) that it may use to process payments. The order executionmodule 108 may communicate with the payment processing system 136 usingtechnology such as Transport Layer Security (TLS) or Secure SocketsLayer (SSL) technology. The vendor order fulfillment system 138 may bean order management system (OMS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP),supply chain management, electronic purchasing system, inventory controlsystem, or any other appropriate system for fulfilling orders.

The e-commerce database 106 may store information such as informationthat describes and/or comprises email campaigns, email advertisementsthat may be sent to users, user information, vendor information, productinformation, product information updates and history, productavailability information, order status information, and/or otherinformation. Further, the e-commerce database 106 may store informationthat indicates correspondences between different email campaigns,advertisements, users, vendors, products, information related to orderstatuses, and/or other information. For each email campaign, thee-commerce database 106 may store information that include an identifierof the vendor associated with the campaign, identifiers of the productsassociated with the campaign, and/or other information. For each orderthat is placed with the e-commerce system 100, the e-commerce database106 may store information such as an identifier of the user that placedthe order, when the order was placed, an identifier of the vendorassociated with the order, and/or other information.

For each product described in the e-commerce database 106, thee-commerce database 106 may store information that includes anidentifier of the product, a description of the product, a title of theproduct, an identifier of the vendor associated with the product, a costof the product, an available number of tickets for the user to availthemselves of the product, potential upgrades/downgrades to the product(e.g. in the airline ticket context first class and coach class pricingoptions may be provided, a date on which the product is available (e.g.concert tickets at this price are for attending the concert between dateX and Y), a date on which tickets for a particular product are availablefor purchase, a date on which tickets for a particular product areavailable to be reserved, and/or other information.

The e-commerce database 106 may be spread across one or any number ofcomputer-readable storage media (not depicted). For example, a portionof the e-commerce database may reside on a vendor's website and may beaccessed through the vendor interface system 137. The e-commercedatabase 106 may be or include, for example, a relational database, ahierarchical database, an object-oriented database, a flat file, aspreadsheet, or a structured file. The database module 104 may interfacewith a database management system (not depicted) in order to add datato, modify data in, or obtain data from the e-commerce database 106.Alternatively or additionally, the database module 104 may performdatabase driver and/or database client functionality to interact withthe database management system. The database management system may bebased on a technology such as Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access,MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle Relational Database Management System (RDBMS),Not Only SQL (NoSQL), or any other appropriate technology.

The website module 107 provides all of the functionality to support aworking website. These functions include displaying a plurality of webpages to a user and providing the standard functionality of a webpagesuch as graphics and video, links to different parts of the website,user login and authentication, support for purchases, security featuresand an interface to user support. The website module 107 provides thegraphical interface and user experience to the web user, and supportsthe functionality as will be described in detail hereinafter.

FIG. 2 shows a website displaying a plurality of example products forwhich tickets may be purchased. The products shown by example in thewebsite of FIG. 2 are not at all limiting as the products may be anytype of item/service/event for which any type of purchase may be made bya user. Each product is associated with a plurality of attributes,(which are not shown in FIG. 2). The attributes may any type of datarelated to a particular product. For example, the attributes may includeone or more words, numbers or other identifiers that may be used todescribe, or may be associated with, the item. In one example, in thecontext of a sporting event, the attributes may include stadiumlocation, identities of the participating teams and/or individualscompeting in the sporting event, identification of seat location,date/time of the sporting event, price, etc. As those of skill in theart would understand, there may also be many attributes associated witheach consumer item that are not intended for the users to utilize, butrather they are for the website proprietor or vendors to utilize. Any,or all, of these attributes may be used for tracking and evaluation.

For example, a “program” attribute may be used by a vendor to track thesuccess of a vendor's current promotional effort to sell out aparticular concert, or movie showing or sporting event. Such informationmay be used to measure the vendor's success with the same productsoffered in different cites (i.e. Chicago versus Philadelphia) and/or asmeasured against different vendors selling the same products.

By further example, a “linking” attribute may be used by the websiteproprietor to track the success of their effort to “upsell” to the user,for example from a less expensive option (e.g. back row seating) to amore expensive item (e.g. front row seating), or to have the user buyaccessories to the item that the user has selected (e.g. users attendinga Bruce Springsteen concert may be offered various types ofmemorabilia). These attributes will be described in greater detailhereinafter.

Referring back to FIG. 2, the user may browse through the items,comparing features among different items. Having looked at all of theattributes, the user may view a particular item and, concluding thatthis item is the item they were looking for, select the item, (such ashotel reservations in San Diego at the Grand Hyatt). They may select theitem as indicated by placing the cursor over the picture of the item orthe select button and clicking on it. The selection chosen for purposesof describing this example is a movie entitled The Hunger Games.

This selection brings the user to another web page with more detailedinformation regarding the item as shown in FIG. 3. For example, the usermay read other user reviews, see the current price, and review thelocation, date and times that are available. However, the user may notyet be ready to commit to location, date and/or time or the currentlyavailable locations, dates, and/or times may not work within the user'sschedule. Accordingly, instead of putting the item into their shoppingbasket and proceeding through to purchase, the user may select the watchlist button, indicated in FIG. 3 as “Watch”.

Selection to put the item on the watch list opens the user's watch list,which is shown in FIG. 4. The watchlist keeps track of the item and allof the relevant associated information at the time of selection by theuser. It should be noted that the amount and type of information that isdisplayed on the watchlist is configurable by the user. Therefore, moreor less information as desired by the user may be displayed or stored.In the example shown in FIG. 4, the picture, the manufacturer, the type,the price and the watchlist add date are all stored. The user may createa more extensive watch list by repeating the method described withreference to FIGS. 2-4 and adding more items. This more extensive watchlist is shown in FIG. 5 by way of example.

Referring to FIG. 5 additional items are shown that the user has put onthe watchlist, including a Bruce Springsteen concert and a cruise toAlaska. All of these items and their associated information are storedfor later use by the user or the vendor as will be described in detailhereinafter. The user may exit the website by selecting the “ExitWebsite” button, or my resume shopping by selecting the “ResumeShopping” button.

In another embodiment, the first time that a user creates a watch list,they may be taken to a “watchlist parameter” screen as shown in FIG. 6.This screen permits the user to configure the features of the watchlistto suit their needs. The user must first enter the email address towhich they want the watchlist to be sent. Alternatively, the system 100may “remember” the user's website, and autofill that particular emailaddress (and the remainder of this information to be described hereinwith reference to FIG. 6). Next, the user selects the frequency thatthey want to watchlist to be emailed, for example hourly, daily, weeklymonthly or upon changes. Once a watch list is generated, for example theone shown is FIG. 5, it may be stored in stored in the e-commercedatabase 106. As will be discussed in greater detail hereinafter, thesystem 100 uses the watch list, and optionally the user's preferences,to generate an active watch list.

Still referring to FIG. 6, the e-commerce system 100 may also beconfigured to enable a user or the system operator to configure a userwatchlist to include a list of friends 609 of the user who also areassociated with the e-commerce system 100 or who otherwise have grantedpermission to enable themselves to be added to the users list offriends. As also described below, this functionality enables an email tobe generated and delivered to the user on a condition that one of theuser's friends 609 has purchased tickets to a product included in theuser's watchlist.

If the user selects hourly, (for example, in the case of an auction),daily, weekly, or monthly, the watchlist is emailed to them on theselected periodic basis. In contrast, the “upon changes” selectionpermits the user to receive an emailed watchlist when some aspect of thewatchlist has changed, as is shown in FIG. 7. The “other” option permitsthe user to select when the want to me notified, including a specificperiodicity, selected dates, or specific times or occasions.

Referring to FIG. 7, the watchlist as shown is emailed in response tothe “upon changes” selection, and the watchlist indicates two changes: achange to the price of the first item (ticket to the movie The HungerGames), and an additional available upgrade of the second item (e.g.backstage passes to the Bruce Springsteen concert). The user may takeaction by buying one of the items on the watchlist or deleting one ofthe items, or may take no action.

It should be noted that the user may create a plurality of differentwatchlists. For example, the user may create a movie watchlistcomprising a plurality of movies, a travel watchlist comprising varioushotel reservations, cruises, flights, etc., a dining watchlist withvarious dining reservations, and/or a relaxation watchlist with variousspa services, etc. All of these watchlists may be independently created,configured and emailed to the user.

The auto search feature shown in FIG. 6 permits the system 100 toautomatically search the website for items that are similar to the itemsthat the user selects for placing on their watchlist. The user may benotified separately of these additional items via email or via aseparate section of the watchlist. The system 100 suggests other similaralternatives to the user and asks the user for permission to add theseitems on their watchlist.

The auto add feature shown in FIG. 6 goes one step further than the autosearch feature, in that it automatically adds the similar items to thewebsite without prior authorization from the user. As would beunderstood by those of skill in the art, additional limitations may beset in place as shown in FIG. 6 to ensure that too may additional itemsmay not be added. By way of illustration, a limitation of 2 additionalsimilar items per selected item, or 5 additional items overall may beset by the user. The list of friends 609 also described above inconnection with FIG. 6 enables a user to receive emails notifying theuser when one of his/her friends purchases tickets to a product includedin the user's watchlist. The list of friends 609 may be configured suchthat certain friends are associated with certain products within theuser's watchlist. For example, the user may wish to know if Jaypurchases tickets to a sporting event but not a movie.

The method of this embodiment is shown with reference to FIG. 8. Theuser browses the selected website and searches for desired items (802).The user selects the desired item(s) to put on their watchlist (804). Adetermination is made to see if a watchlist was already previouslycreated (806). If a watchlist has not been created, a watchlist iscreated, the user configures the watchlist in accordance with theirpreferences, and the item(s) are put on the watchlist (808, 810, 812).It should be noted that step 806 may be optional in that default settingmay be used to create a watchlist. Therefore, in this alternativeembodiment, the watchlist is automatically created by the e-commercesystem 100 when a first watchlist item is added.

If the watchlist was already created, the method skips to the step ofputting items on the watchlist (812). The watchlist is then stored(814). The watchlist is then emailed to the user on the frequencyselected during the user's configuration of their watchlist, or on adefault frequency or setting (816).

It should be understood by those of skill in the art that the presente-commerce system 100 is flexible to utilize in a variety of differentmanners. In one example, a user may put one or more items that have alimited quantity or limited availability duration. If a website providesquantity or availability duration information along with the otherinformation provided about an item, the user may also put such an itemon their watchlist for tracking. One such example may be movie ticketsfor a particular movie at a particular time. The user may put such anitem on their watchlist, and as either the movie time approaches, or thetickets are within a predetermined number of tickets from becoming soldout, the user may be notified by receiving the transmitted watchlistwith the updated information. In another embodiment, the user may benotified regarding how fast (or slow) tickets are being sold for anevent on their watchlist. For example, where an available amount oftickets reduces from say for example 90% to 30% in say for example 30minutes, the system is able to be configured either by the systemoperator or by the user to generate and send an email informing the userof this fact. Similarly, the system may be configured by either thesystem operator or the user to trigger an email alert when an availableamount of tickets drops to say 20% (or any percentage). Furthermore,either the system operator or the user may configure the system tocombine these two features together. For example, the system may beconfigured by either the system operator or the user to generate anemail to the user when the amount of available tickets drops to say 20%with an override wherein am email will also be generated in the eventthat the tickets are selling particularly fast. The override may betriggered in any appropriate manner such as dropping from one percentageof availability to another within a predetermined time frame or, forexample, a rate of tickets sold per time (e.g. 5000 tickets sold infirst hour of availability or over the course of some predetermined timeframe). As described above, the watchlist may also be configured toinclude links to friends such that an alert may be provided on acondition that one of the user's friends has purchased tickets to anevent on the user's watchlist.

Likewise, a user may put items on their watchlist that are not yetavailable, such as show, concert or sporting event tickets. Once thesetickets become available the user may be notified via the parameters setforth on their watchlist.

Referring to FIG. 9, a second embodiment is shown. This embodiment issimilar to the aforedescribed embodiment of FIGS. 1-7, except that thewatchlist of this embodiment may be generated from items on a pluralityof websites. Each of the watchlist items may be from different websitesas is graphically illustrated in FIG. 9. The user may browse a pluralityof websites wherein as the user browses the websites, and selects one ormore items, these items are placed in their one or more watchlists.

This functionality provides the user with exceptional convenience intracking a plurality of items over a plurality of websites in a single,central location, while receiving updates regarding those items in amanner in which the user has selected.

There are at least two alternatives for permitting items from multiplewebsites to be added to a watchlist; a first alternative captures theinformation of an item that the user wants to place on their watchlistfrom the particular website, and stores this information in thee-commerce system 100; and the second alternative utilizes functionality(called WOW, for “widget on a website”) at each website to communicatewith the e-commerce system 100 and transmit this information and anyupdated information to the e-commerce system 100. These two alternativeswill be explained in detail hereinafter.

In the first alternative, the user browses one or more websites, andwhen they have identified an item that they want to add to theirwatchlist, they perform a “screen capture”, on the particular item. Thisinformation must be saved, and then later pasted into an email or ascreen of the e-commerce system 100. The screen is scrubbed for allrelevant information and added to the watchlist. The e-commerce system100 may then periodically send out one or more web crawlers to updatethis information on a basis as set forth by the user. One of skill inthe art would appreciate that this alternative may meet with mixedresults depending upon the information that is available on eachwebsite.

In the second alternative, the WOW functionality is included on each“participating” website. A participating website is a website that hasincorporated WOW functionality, that will automatically transmit thedesired information directly to the e-commerce system 100. This permitsthe information for adding to the watchlist to be seamlessly added andalso seamlessly updated as selected by the user.

Although features and elements are described above in particularcombinations, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that eachfeature or element can be used alone or in any combination with theother features and elements. In addition, the methods described hereinmay be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmwareincorporated in a computer-readable medium for execution by a computeror processor. Examples of computer-readable media include electronicsignals (transmitted over wired or wireless connections) andcomputer-readable storage media. Examples of computer-readable storagemedia include, but are not limited to, a read only memory (ROM), arandom access memory (RAM), a register, cache memory, semiconductormemory devices, magnetic media such as internal hard disks and removabledisks, magneto-optical media, and optical media such as CD-ROM disks,and digital versatile disks (DVDs). A processor in association withsoftware may be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for usein a WTRU, UE, terminal, base station, RNC, or any host computer.

FIG. 10 shows an example system 1300 that may be used to implementfeatures described above with respect to FIGS. 1-9. The example system1300 includes an e-commerce server 1350, a client device 1370, and oneor more networks 1380.

The e-commerce server 1350 may include at least one processor 1352,memory device 1354, network interface 1356, and storage device 1358. Theclient device 1370 may include at least one processor 1372, memorydevice 1374, network interface 1376, input device interface 1375,display device interface 1377, and storage device 1378.

The e-commerce server 1350 may be configured to perform any feature orcombination of features described above with reference to FIGS. 1-9 asperformed by the account management module 102, database module 104,order execution module 108, message processing module 110, and/or emailinterface module 112. The client device 1370 may be configured toperform any feature or combination of features described above withreference to FIGS. 1-9 as performed by the email client module 122and/or the web browser module in the customer client device 120. Theclient device 1370 may be, for example, a desktop computer, a laptopcomputer, a netbook, a tablet computer, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a cellular phone, or any other appropriate device.

Each or any of the memory devices 1354, 1374 may be or include a devicesuch as a Dynamic Random Access Memory (D-RAM), Static RAM (S-RAM), orother RAM or a flash memory. Each or any of the storage devices 1358,1378 may be or include a hard disk, a magneto-optical medium, an opticalmedium such as a CD-ROM, a digital versatile disk (DVDs), or Blu-Raydisc (BD), or other type of device for electronic data storage. Thestorage device 1358 in the e-commerce server 1350 may store theinformation or any subset of the information described above withreference to FIGS. 1-9 as stored in the e-commerce database 106.

Each or any of the network interfaces 1356, 1376 may be, for example, acommunications port, a wired transceiver, or a wireless transceiver.Each or any of the network interfaces 1356, 1376 may be capable ofcommunicating using technologies such as Ethernet, fiber optics,microwave, xDSL (Digital Subscriber Line), Wireless Local Area Network(WLAN) technology, wireless cellular technology, and/or any otherappropriate technology. The network interfaces 1356, 1376 may be used bythe e-commerce server 1350 and/or the client device 1370 to communicatevia the one or more networks 1380. The network interface in thee-commerce server 1350 may be configured to communicate any of themessages and/or other information described above with reference toFIGS. 1-9 as communicated by the account management module 102, databasemodule 104, order execution module 108, message processing module 110,and/or email interface module 112. The network interface 1376 in theclient device 1370 may be configured to communicate any of the messagesand/or other information described above with reference to FIGS. 1-10 ascommunicated by the email client module 122 and/or by the web browsermodule in the customer client device 120 used for communicating with theaccount management module 102.

The one or more networks 1380 may include one or more private networksand/or one or more public networks such as the Internet. The one or morenetworks 1380 may be based on wired and/or wireless networkingtechnologies.

The input device interface 1375 in the client device 1370 may be aninterface configured to receive input from an input device such as akeyboard, a mouse, a trackball, a scanner, a touch screen, a touch pad,a stylus pad, and/or other device. The input device interface 1375 mayoperate using a technology such as Universal Serial Bus (USB), PS/2,Bluetooth, infrared, and/or other appropriate technology. The inputdevice interface 1375 may be configured to receive any or anycombination of the user input described above with reference to FIGS.1-9 as received by the by the email client module 122 and/or by the webbrowser module in the customer client device 120 used for communicatingwith the account management module 102.

The display device interface 1377 may be an interface configured tocommunicate data to a display device (not depicted). The display deviceinterface 1377 may operate using technology such as Video Graphics Array(VGA), Super VGA (S-VGA), Digital Visual Interface (DVI),High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), or other appropriatetechnology. The client device 1370 may include or be connected to adisplay device (not depicted) via the display device interface 1377. Thedisplay device may be, for example, a monitor or television display, aplasma display, a liquid crystal display (LCD), and/or a display basedon a technology such as front or rear projection, light emitting diodes(LEDs), organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), or Digital LightProcessing (DLP). The display device may be configured to display, basedon data received via the display device interface 1377, any displayelements described above with reference to FIGS. 1-9 as displayed by theemail client module 122 and/or by the web browser module in the customerclient device.

The memory device 1354 and/or the storage device 1358 of the e-commerceserver 1350 may store instructions which, when executed by the at leastone processor 1352, cause the at least one processor 1352 to perform anyfeature or combination of features described above with reference toFIGS. 1-9 as performed by the account management module 102, databasemodule 104, order execution module 108, message processing module 110,and/or email interface module 112. The memory device 1374 and/or thestorage device 1358 of the client device 1370 may store instructionswhich, when executed by the at least one processor 1372, cause the atleast one processor 1372 to perform any feature or combination offeatures described above with reference to FIGS. 1-9 as performed by theemail client module 122 and/or by the web browser module in the customerclient device 120 used for communicating with the account managementmodule 102.

Although FIG. 10 shows a single e-commerce server 1350 and a singleclient device 1370, the functionality described above with reference toFIG. 10 as performed by the e-commerce serve 1350 and/or the clientdevice 1370 may be distributed across any number of devices thatpossesses similar characteristics and/or that include similar components1352, 1354, 1356, 1358, 1372, 1374, 11375, 1376, 1377 as the e-commerceserver 1350 and/or the client device 1370.

While examples are provided above with respect to the Figures whichincludes the use of email communications, the features described abovewith respect to the Figures may also be implemented using differenttypes of communications technology. For example, the features describedabove with reference to the Figures may also be implemented, mutatismutandis, using technologies that include any one or any combination of:email; instant messaging; enterprise messaging; Short Message Service(SMS); Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS); and/or any other appropriatetechnology for the electronic communication of data.

As use herein, the term “vendor” broadly refers to and is not limited toa business, a non-profit organization, any other type of organization,and/or an individual person. One example of a business is an onlineretailer. Examples of non-profit organizations include charitableorganizations, educational institutions such as schools anduniversities, arts organizations, and recreational organizations.Examples of recreational organizations include historical orpreservation societies, local recreational sports leagues.

As used herein, the term “processor” broadly refers to and is notlimited to a single- or multi-core general purpose processor, a specialpurpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor(DSP), a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors inassociation with a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, one ormore Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), one or more FieldProgrammable Gate Array (FPGA) circuits, any other type of integratedcircuit (IC), a system-on-a-chip (SOC), and/or a state machine.

As used to herein, the term “computer-readable storage medium” broadlyrefers to and is not limited to a register, a cache memory, a ROM, asemiconductor memory device (such as a D-RAM, S-RAM, or other RAM), amagnetic medium such as a flash memory, a hard disk, a magneto-opticalmedium, an optical medium such as a CD-ROM, a DVDs, or BD, or other typeof device for electronic data storage.

Although features and elements are described above in particularcombinations, each feature or element can be used alone or in anycombination with or without the other features and elements. Forexample, each feature or element as described above with reference tothe Figures may be used alone without the other features and elements orin various combinations with or without other features and elements.Sub-elements of the methods and features described above with referenceto the Figures may be performed in any arbitrary order (includingconcurrently), in any combination or sub-combination.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system that improves e-commerce transactionsperformed across a plurality of different e-commerce websites byutilizing email the system comprising: a Communication interface that iscommunicatively coupled to a user device and the plurality of differente-commerce websites via a network; a memory; a processor that iscommunicatively coupled to the Communication interface and the memory,wherein the processor: receives, using the Communication interface, aselection of a new item from a user via a first e-commerce website,wherein the first e-commerce website is accessed using the user deviceand is selected from the plurality of different e-commerce websites,automatically adds the new item to a watchlist of the user, wherein thewatchlist contains items from the plurality of different e-commercewebsites, identifies, using the memory, an additional user that isassociated with the user, determines that the additional user haspurchased at least one item from the watchlist, and sends, using theCommunication interface, an email message to an email address of theuser in response to the additional user purchasing the at least one itemfrom the watchlist, wherein the email message includes a link topurchase the at least one item from the watchlist.
 2. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the new item is selected by the user via a link on thefirst e-commerce website.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the new itemis selected by the user via an initial email sent to the user.
 4. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the processor further: determines anadditional item to add to the watchlist based on the new item andpreferences of the user stored in the memory.
 5. The system of claim 4,wherein the additional item is from a second e-commerce website amongthe plurality of different e-commerce websites.
 6. A method thatimproves e-commerce transactions performed across a plurality ofdifferent e-commerce websites by utilizing email, the method comprising:receiving, by a processor, a selection of a new item from a user via afirst e-commerce website, wherein the first e-commerce website isselected from the plurality of different e-commerce websites;automatically adding, by the processor, the new item to a watchlist ofthe user, wherein the watchlist contains items from a plurality ofdifferent e-commerce websites; identifying, by the processor, anadditional user that is associated with the user, determining, by theprocessor, that the additional user has purchased at least one item fromthe watchlist; and sending, by the processor, an email message to anemail address of the user in response to the additional user purchasingthe at least one item from the watchlist, wherein the email messageincludes a link to purchase the at least one item from the watchlist. 7.The method of claim 6, wherein the new item is selected by the user viaa link on the first e-commerce website.
 8. The method of claim 6,wherein the new item is selected by the user via an initial email sentto the user.
 9. The method of claim 6, further comprising: determining,by the processor, an additional item to add to the watchlist based onthe new item and preferences of the user.
 10. The method of claim 9,wherein the additional item is from a second e-commerce website amongthe plurality of different e-commerce websites.
 11. A non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium storing instructions for improvinge-commerce transactions performed across a plurality of differente-commerce websites by utilizing email, the instructions when executedby a processor of a computer system, cause the processor to execute amethod that comprises: receiving, via a Communication interface, aselection of a new item from a user via a first e-commerce website,wherein the first e-commerce website is selected from the plurality ofdifferent e-commerce websites; automatically adding, by the processor,the new item to a watchlist of the user, wherein the watchlist containsitems from a plurality of different e-commerce websites; identifying, bythe processor, an additional user that is associated with the user;determining, by the processor, that the additional user has purchased atleast one item from the watchlist; and sending, by the processor, anemail message to an email address of the user in response to theadditional user purchasing the at least one item from the watchlist,wherein the email message includes a link to purchase the at least oneitem from the watchlist.
 12. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 11, wherein the new item is selected by the uservia a link on the first e-commerce website.
 13. The non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the new item isselected by the user via an initial email sent to the user.
 14. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein themethod further comprises: determining, by the processor, an additionalitem to add to the watchlist based on the new item and preferences ofthe user.
 15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium ofclaim 14, wherein the additional item is from a second e-commercewebsite among the plurality of different e-commerce websites.